Collins is right

Judith Collins is absolutely correct, and the PM is wrong. Helen Clark said the removal of Section 59 has been “crudely and wrongly represented in the media as calls for a ban on smacking, which it is not” yet the Office of the Police Commissioner has said “If Section 59 was repealed in its entirety parents would not be authorised to use reasonable force by way of correction … smacking of a child by way of corrective action would be an assault.”

My preferred approach remains to have a more explicit definition of reasonable force. Now this is opposed by Professor Durrant from Canada as it was tried there. But let’s look at her reasoning. After the Canadian Supreme Court tried to define reasonable force someone on an Internet bulletin board posted “Thank God the little bastards will know who’s boss now”.

Jesus Christ. An obviously satirical comment on a bulletin board is used as justification. To be fair it sounds like the Supreme Court did a bad job of defining reasonable force. But I don’t think it should be left to Judges instead of Parliament. Former MP Bob Simcock a few years ago came up with a revised definition which looked fairly sound.